The 3rd Season starts tonight

[evilgrins]

I'd originally intended a really long post but I just don't have it in me for some reason. This may be fairly long in itself but I'll try and keep it fairly brief too.

Before this new series of Battlestar Galactica originally started I put together a review, not too dissimilar from my Inconsistancies posts, based on the number of rumors I heard about its content. A die hard fan of the original Battlestar Galactica that I grew up with, I was pretty damned sure I wasn't going to like it...

...and after the 1st episode I was hooked. There's a lot of reasons for this, possibly the fact they more humanized everything was a key factor, but still this show is light years better than the original.

My initial first problem was with the Cylons, though I do get how they're going for a responsibility in the symbiosis between the Humans and these much more advanced machines. The original Cylons were a reptilian species that gradually incoporated technology into themselves (Borg much?) until they became a cybernetic species. In this new series the Cylons were a constructed series of slave robots that gained sentience and eventually rebelled against their human creators. Thus launched the first Human/Cylon War and the rest is history.

There was an old Cylon on display in a museum in the 1st episode. Apparently the old models were identical to those in the original series.

I'm probably going to do a lot of comparisons between the two series cuz that's just how I am.

• Part of the reason this new series has an edge over the old one is it is at once futuristic and not at the same time. Everything about the old one was geared to it being an advanced, alien, Human society...so far as the 1970's envisioned it. This one though we've got the civilians in normal suits with ties and people wearing glasses and the clothing, while slightly different, looks just like anything you might see walking down the street. I'm kinda surprised I haven't seen someone running down a corridor in jeans and sneakers.
• The Cylons are very interesting in their evolutions. There's the standard Cylons who are humanoid but decidedly machines with weapons built into their arms. Their ships pilot themselves as they are another form of Cylon, though it has been said they're more like lower lifeforms and sentients...like dogs. The humanform Cylons are particularly interesting. They understand Humans so very well but they're a bit disconnected themselves. There may be other types that haven't been revealed as yet. Humanforms also can procreate with Humans but there has to be an emotional component or it doesn't work.
• The Humans are polytheists, their religion seems based in the Greek Pantheon. The Cylons are monotheists, their religion is disturbingly Christian.
• Similar to conditions in our own galaxy, the Humans in the series are of the mind that very few worlds are capable of supporting life. In the original series there were Humans littered all over the bloody place, supposedly lending credit to the possibility of a distant Human colony as these stragglers settled many places along the way. So far the Humans in the current series haven't found any other Human life anywhere on their long quest. The world they settled on, in lieu of the Earth they were seeking, is only partially able to support their lifeform and only in certain regions.
• Baltar in the original series knowingly betrayed his people to the Cylons for the promise that he'd be able to rule them. The current version is one of the much lauded scientists who was seduced by one of the sexiest of the humanform Cylon models, there are a number of different models of Cylon but each particular series is identical, and allowed her access to colonial security not knowing she wasn't what she appeared to be.
• So, this sexy Cylon fell for Baltar hard. Throughout the series Baltar keeps seeing and interacting with her although she is only visible to him aboard the Galactica. The belief is that she did something to him before her body was destroyed and that's why she can continually communicate with him as an apparant ghost. It's interesting when we see her ressurected, something these new models of humanform Cylon can do, that she sees Baltar the same way he's been seeing her. Since he clearly didn't do anything to her it is a mystery. Very curious how this will continue to work considering they've been reunited.
• A number of characters from the original series have been redesigned to opposite genders. Most notably Boomer and Starbuck which is really interesting. Starbuck seems even more...well Starbuck·ish than the original actor did. Boomer is really interesting because not only is she a girl now but she's also a humanform Cylon. Gave birth too, had a relationship with one of the other pilots (an original character by the way) though she believes the kid died at childbirth but it was actually secreted away to a young mother to see how it will develop.
• You wanna know the one thing, above all, that really hooked me to this series? Human suffering. In the original series you were told the whole basic sob story. Had to leave their home, long trek through space, supplies low, dangers of space, fighting an enemy that wouldn't give up, blah blah blah. Other than torn clothes and the occasional smudge of grease they didn't really look all that put out. In the current series you can see the pain, you can see the hunger, you can see people that have been so clearly tortured it's not funny but it hits you hard. Despite the circumstances and the science fiction it's just so damned real!
• Another sense of realism, and this is kind of a minor thing but it definitely works, is the names. In the military, particularly among pilots, it's not unusual for people to go by call signs. Beyond that, everybody in the original series only had one name. There were no last names...or maybe no first names. This series everyone except the cylons has a first and last name. Suppose the Cylons might have 2 names if "Number" counts as a first name.
• One thing the original series didn't do ws show views back of Caprica, the Humans former home, after they fled the planet. First we see it in thr form of Humans that have stayed behind and are struggling to survive the fallout; initially just Helio and Boomer...before anyone knew she was a Cylon. Then it turns out, obviously not bothered by the radiation, the Cylons reoccupy the planet and begin hunting down the remaining Humans and either exterminating them or experimenting on them.
• From fans of the original series to the new one, a key thing about the cybernetic Cylons is that pulsing occular receptor going back and forth constantly. The humanforms don't have this but apparently the female Cylons spines pulse red when they're having sex. I don't even wanna think where the males glow.
• Roundabout the middle of the original series came the most impressive event that was a major turning point, the discovery that yet another Battlestar survived the destruction of the colonies. The Battlestar Pegasus, commandered by the legendary Commander Caine (played very impressively by Kirk Douglas) who had been taking a more direct stance against the pursuing Cylons. Naturally when I saw that the Pegasus was going to be in this series I was beside myself with joy. However, while the commander was just as legendary in this series she was decidedly not as nice. Unlike the original series, the Pegasus apparently had a Human fleet of survivors from the colonies as well but this Caine sacrificed them in favor of her Battlestar, taking members from their crews and putting them to labor aboard her ship in key systems where it was necessary. By the time they reached Galactica none of their civilian ships had survived. That and both commanders of the two Battlestars began plotting to take the other out for various reasons shortly after they started working together. In the original series the Pegasus disappeared under mysterious circumstances but in this new one the ship remains.

You think this was anything you should've seen the longer version that's still in my head.

Don't have a television schedule handy as I'm typing this but I believe that Battlestar Galactica comes on the SciFi channel at 9pm, right after Heroes & Doctor Who.